The Evening Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo MONDAY, AUGUST 29,1857.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 201, 29 August 1887, Page 4

The Evening Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo

MONDAY, AUGUST 29,1857.

For the cause that lacks assistance, Tor t_e -wrong that needs resistance, For the*- future in tho distance, And the- £Ood that -we can do.

Two ideas appear to be firmly fastening themselves upon the minds of colonial legislators, and iriaking an impression on the laws of all the colonies. These ideas are the Land Tax and Protection to local industry. New South Wales has resisted the latter although there is a powerful and grow', ing party opposed to the adopted fiscal policy of the colony. But even in New South Wales, despite the powerful squatter interest, the principle of theLandTaxismaking headway. South Australia long ago adopted the land tax, and now it is going in for Protection as a remedy for the intense depression which its Free Trade policy, reducing it to a purely agricultural community, has brought about. Now, Queensland, with a vast area unsettled, with plantation and squatting industries well-developed and exercising considerable influence over the Government, is yet going in for a land tax and Protection. There has lately been a Ministerial crisis in the north-eastern colony of Australia. Tho Colonial Treasurer of Queensland, like the

Treasurer here, has had to face a deficit amounting t0£365,000, a much larger sum than has called forth the " roar " for retrenchment in this colony. In his Financial Statement, the Premier, Sir Samuel Griffith, submitted various proposals for reducing expenditure, and casting some burdens upon the local bodies that were formerly borneby the consolidated revenue. But he also stated *• he was in favour of a proectivo tariff, but would not interfere with the present rates this year. The land owners had largely benefited by tho railways, and they contributed little to the cost. The property owner also escaped taxation, whilst a poor man with a large family contributed more. He therefore proposed that land be made to contribute, and be taxed at the rate of Id in the £ on the unimproved value over which was estimated to produce ;£ 100,000 per annum." If, therefore, the Ministerial Budget is adopted, the land tax will become immediately operative in Queensland, with a protective taariff in prospect. Another remarkable feature in Sir Samuel Griffith's proposals is a decentralising scheme. We have only a telegraphic summary relating to this matter, and the details to hand therefore are very meagre, but part of it consists in crediting to each port of the colony the Customs revenue received there, andalso the revenue from goods received there for consumption which had paid duty elsewhere. The object of the scheme appears to be to localise Government expenditure. The neglect of the Northern districts, combined with the coloured labour question, has produced a strong agitation for separation. Queensland has several good ports, and therefore the endeavour to make Brisbane the outlet of tho whole trade of the colony, as Sydney and Melbourne are the outlets for the two older colonies, is unnatural. The Premier wishes to allay the prevalent discontent by a scheme which will counteract these centralising tendencies, and as all colonies suffer more or less from the same evil, his scheme for localising Customs duties, which was partly attempted under the old Provincial system, of New Zealand, possesses a peculiar interest for the people of this colony.